The internal combustion engine has been a mixed blessing in many under-developed countries, particularly in Africa, which, unlike Asia, has been unable to adapt it to local conditions. Conventional motorised vehicles, for example buses, trucks and cars, are not designed for simple earth roads. Because of their cost and size they cannot economically satisfy the needs of a dispersed clientele. Profitability demands full loads, and even overloading, given that poor roads and mechanical unreliability can curtail trips. Short distances and seasonal peaks and troughs in demand imposed by crop marketing structures and the harvest cycle also make it difficult for them to cover their fixed costs. It is not therefore surprising that old and dilapidated vehicles are common.
Even though many clever local adaptations exist and much ingenuity goes into keeping vehicles running against all odds, they are merely palliatives and transportation services remain poor in rural areas. Vehicle operators tend to avoid straying onto rural roads, where passengers are few and the risk high of being stuck for days during the rainy season. Vehicles commonly used, such as the ubiquitous two axle seven-ton truck, destroy rural roads and bridges, as well as themselves.
Hence the need for developing appropriate means of transport, generally referred to Intermediate Means of Transport (IMT), adapted to the needs of a rural clientele (see also the video page for some innovative ideas as well as the gTKP page for more detail). They should be sized to transport cheaply relatively small loads over short distances. and this at the moment when the service is most needed, often when the roads are at their worst. They should stand up to poor roads and be easily repaired locally when they do not. They should be capable of off-road use, on the tracks and trails which radiate from roads and which lead to where people live. In general, they will sacrifice speed and scale economies of traditional vehicles for a low capital outlay and simplicity in repair. Since they are less destructive of roads and bridges they reduce transport infrastructure costs. Even though their theoretical costs per tonne/kilometre may not be lower than a conventional vehicle, better adaptation to patterns of demand and economies in infrastructure building greatly reduces total transport costs.
The problem lies not so much in devising appropriate means of transport but in creating the conditions in which they can be ideally manufactured locally or else imported and distributed at a price that people can afford. This applies much more to Africa than to Asia, where indigenous solutions for personal and collective transport abound and a description of the adaptations of even the unpretentious bicycle would fill a volume. In Africa, rural incomes are too low to allow widespread ownership of private transport, even bicycles. Worse again, high import tariffs often drive them even further out of reach. The problem here is not one of inventiveness, but rather applying knowledge of what is done elsewhere, leavened by common sense. Also by putting in place credit systems, promoting collective use, lobbying central government to introduce advantageous tariff structures and promoting polyvalent small enterprises capable of manufacturing and repairing simple transport and for that matter light construction equipment and tools suitable for labour-based works.
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